I’ve posted before on the problems with Greece’s debt and its implications for the European Union and its member nations. Today a deal with respect to Greece’s debt problems was announced; it involves pledges of support for a financing plan by EU countries and lending from the International Monetary Fund. Looking at the deal that [...]
Archive for March, 2010
Greece And California (Cont.)
Posted in The Economy, Work, tagged Euro, European Union, Greece, Greece Debt Crisis, World, World Economy on March 25, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
A Buck Back Update
Posted in sports, tagged 2010 Buck Back, 2010 NCAA Tournament, Kansas State, NCAA, sports, Sweet 16, Washington, West Virginia, Xavier on March 25, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
We’re heading into the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, and I’ve reached a crucial point in the Buck Back. I’ve netted 7 bucks so far and have two teams left — third-round selection Xavier and sixth-round selection Washington. They both play tonight, so by the time the sun rises tomorrow I could be out [...]
A Test Of Representative Democracy
Posted in America, Healthcare Reform, Politics, tagged America, Congress, Health Care Reform, Healthcare Reform, Politics, Representative Democracy on March 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I haven’t posted anything about the actual passage, and now the signature into law, of the “health care reform” legislation. We are now learning about heretofore undiscussed provisions of the massive legislation — like the provision that requires disclosures of calories on the menus of restaurants, the provisions that exempt certain congressional staffers from certain [...]
Big Lift For Big Ten Basketball
Posted in sports, tagged 2010 NCAA Tournament, Big Ten, Big Ten basketball, Buckeye Basketball, Michigan State University, Ohio State, Purdue University, sports, Sweet 16 on March 24, 2010 | 2 Comments »
The Big Ten is feeling pretty good about basketball these days. With three teams — Michigan State, Ohio State, and Purdue — in the Sweet 16, the Big Ten has more teams still in contention than any other conference. For a moment, at least, the Big Ten has quieted critics who say that the league [...]
That Pathetic Census Commercial
Posted in America, Politics, TV, tagged 2010 Census, America, Census Commercials, Commercial, Politics, TV on March 23, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Throughout the NCAA tournament game broadcasts this past weekend, I kept seeing the same commercial for the 2010 federal Census. You’ve probably seen it, too. It begins with some unshaven, slovenly guy in a bathrobe going out to get his mail. He gets the census form and suddenly the street is crowded with passersby. He [...]
Rising On The Implausibility Meter
Posted in TV, tagged 24, Chloe O'Brian, death pool, Jack Bauer, TV on March 23, 2010 | 1 Comment »
I’ve recently posted on the boring nature of this season of 24. The producers and writers apparently have heard such complaints, because the show has taken an abrupt veer into the random violence, outright implausibiilty, and general weirdness to which the loyal viewers of the program have become accustomed. Last night’s episode was a good [...]
1000th Post — Factoids
Posted in Blogging, tagged Blogging on March 23, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday we hit our 1000th post. The latest factoids: Total views: 18,231 Busiest day: March 2, 2010, with 1, 121 views Most popular post: Release The Kraken! with 1,931 views Highlight: Release the Kraken! was a featured link on the WordPress homepage on March 2, which helps to account for the record number of hits [...]
A Sweet Week
Posted in sports, tagged 2010 NCAA Tournament, Big Ten basketball, Buckeye Basketball, Dallas Lauderdale, David Lighty, Evan Turner, Georgia Tech, Jon Diebler, NCAA, Ohio State, sports, Sweet 16, Tennessee, William Buford on March 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Dr. Science came over to watch the game yesterday, and while munching on Hills pizza and other goodies we watched the Ohio State men’s team beat Georgia Tech, 75-66, to advance to the Sweet 16. The Buckeyes were led by Evan Turner, who bounced back from a subpar first-round game to lead the Buckeyes in [...]
Happy 80th Birthday, Mom!
Posted in Family, tagged Family on March 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Mom’s 80th birthday party yesterday was a great success. Mom’s brother, Uncle Gilbert, came in from Florida for the festivities, and other members of the Neal clan also traveled from far and wide to attend, including cousin Beth from Florida, cousin Gib from Chicago, Dave and Stacy from Akron, and Peg and Dave from here [...]
Shooting For The Sweet Sixteen
Posted in sports, tagged 2010 NCAA Tournament, Buckeye Basketball, Ohio State, sports on March 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The goal for the OSU men’s basketball team is simple: win today’s game and advance to the Sweet 16. They will be facing a difficult test in Georgia Tech, a tough, athletic, ACC-hardened team, so there should be no question of overconfidence or looking past a small-conference opponent. Having seen Kansas shocked by Northern Iowa [...]
Mom Mix (Cont.)
Posted in Family, Music, tagged Big Band Music, Family, Guys and Dolls, Movie Musicals, Music, Oklahoma!, Show Tunes, South Pacific, The King and I, The Sound of Music, West Side Story on March 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Today we celebrate Mom’s 80th birthday with a party. As I’ve mentioned before, my primary responsibility for the party was to prepare a mix of songs that Mom and her guests would enjoy. We expect to have about 80 people there of all ages, but the primary musical audience will be Mom and her contemporaries, [...]
Five Bucks (And Counting — I Hope)
Posted in sports, tagged 2010 Buck Back, 2010 NCAA Tournament, Florida, Isaiah Thomas, Kansas, Murray State, sports, Texas, Texas A&M, Washington Huskies, Xavier on March 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
First round play in the NCAA Tournament ended last night, and I’ve got five bucks to show for it. My first, second, and third round picks (Kansas, Texas A&M, and Xavier, respectively) all won, my fourth and fifth round picks (Texas and Florida) lost in heartbreak fashion in overtime, and I got pleasant surprise wins [...]
Paying Attention And Participating
Posted in America, Healthcare Reform, Politics, tagged America, Civics, Congress, Health Care Reform, Healthcare Reform, Politics, Voting on March 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Richard’s post below reminded me of a point that I wanted to make before the whole health care debate effectively ends, supposedly with a vote on Sunday in the House of Representatives. Whether you support or oppose the “health care reform” legislation — and even a casual reader of the blog knows that Richard, UJ [...]
Channel 6 = Fox News?
Posted in Uncategorized on March 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I was taking a walk in Goodale Park during my lunch break today when a woman carrying a large stack of papers approached me, accompanied by a cameraman. She said she was from Channel 6 news and asked if she could talk to me about healthcare reform. Predictably, the stack of papers was the healthcare bill [...]
80 Years Young
Posted in Family on March 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Well today is mom’s big day, 80 years young so I decided to check with some of our family historians and piece together her life story. Mom was a depression era baby born in 1930, to her parents Gilbert and Maude, along with one brother Gil. Their childhood seemed to be pretty much a normal one and they were well [...]
